


A Dream

by natashasbanner



Series: Bruce/Nat Missing Scenes [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14493321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natashasbanner/pseuds/natashasbanner
Summary: "Sometimes, she wondered if it was worth it. All the running and hiding and stress of constantly looking over their shoulders, and for what?"Or,Natasha feels the weight of being on the run.





	A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Not necessarily a Bruce and Natasha interaction but the ship sort of implied. This was basically born from the interviews that came out before Infinity War came where Scarlett said that Natasha had hardened by the time we see her in IW. I wanted to explore what might have lead to that by digging into the process of shutting off her emotions to cope with being on the run again. I don't know, I wanted to write it so here it is. Please enjoy :)

The hotel in Scotland wasn’t as bad as some of the seedier places they’d stayed in on the run and it certainly beat sleeping on the quinjet. There was a small bar downstairs, full and lively. The perfect place for Natasha to hide in plain sight and enjoy a beer. 

 

She sat with her back to the corner and kept her head down while she drank. Every once in a while she felt eyes on her, but they all turned out to be curious locals instead of whoever was out there looking for them. 

 

Sometimes, she wondered if it was worth it. All the running and hiding and stress of constantly looking over their shoulders, and for what? To avoid jail? Have the satisfaction that they stuck to their morals? It’d only been a year since the airport and Natasha felt like she’d aged ten. She wondered what kind of deal she could cut, end up on house arrest like Clint. But she knew she never could. They’d lock her up and throw away the key. 

 

With a resigned sigh, she downed the rest of her beer in one go and slammed the empty pint down on the table. 

 

“Whoa there,” Sam’s voice broke into her haze and she looked up to see him standing beside her table. “They haven’t cut you off yet?” he asked, sitting down on the empty stool across from her. 

 

“I’d like to see them try,” she said, lazily slipping the tip of her knife out of her sleeve to glint in the glow of the small lamp hanging overhead. 

 

Sam chuckled and waved at the bartender for another round. “This one’s on me.” 

 

A waiter brought two full pints over and Sam held his glass up and nodded for Natasha to do the same. 

 

“To a whole year without getting caught,” he said and a few of the people sitting at the surrounding tables looked over curiously. 

 

Natasha ignored them, they were all harmless, and tapped her glass against Sam’s. 

 

“Say that a little louder and there won’t be another one,” Natasha quipped and took a long drink from her mug. 

 

“What’s got you down Widow?” Sam asked after a few minutes of silence. “This is starting to feel like a drown your sorrows kind of night.” 

 

Natasha smiled weakly and sat back in her chair. She tilted her head and looked up at Sam through her lashes. 

 

“Now what sorrows would I have to drown?” she questioned. 

 

Sam laughed and lifted his glass to his lips again, watching her over the rim. 

 

“I could think of a few,” he said, looking at her seriously. 

 

Natasha sighed and looked past Sam to the window outside. The wet roads were illuminated by the street lamps here and there, but she could still see the stars sparkling above. Blinking lights appeared as a plane flew by in the distance. Natasha tore her eyes away and took another drink of beer. 

 

“Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if Cap and I hadn’t shown up at your door?” she asked. 

 

Sam looked at her in surprise. He shrugged and shook his head. 

  
“Pretty boring, I would imagine,” he answered and raised his eyebrow at her in question. 

 

“So you don’t miss it?” 

 

He looked down into his glass at that, a frown tugging all the lines of his face. 

 

“I never said that,” he sighed. “It’d be nice to know that this might all be over one day, though.” 

 

“Yeah,” she breathed out. 

 

It was a pretty picture to paint when everything else became too much, imagining a life for herself that didn’t involve constantly looking over her shoulder and bouncing from country to country every few days, hoping that it wouldn’t be the day the world finally caught up to them. 

 

“I don’t know if I’d be able to go back to normal after everything that’s happened,” Sam continued, staring into his almost empty glass. 

 

Natasha almost felt bad for dragging him into her pessimistic line of thought, but misery did love company. 

 

“Well there’s nothing left for me to go back to,” she said, holding up her glass and downing the rest like before. 

 

“You don’t believe that, do you?” Sam asked her quietly. 

Natasha raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Why shouldn’t I?” 

 

She turned to look out the window again with a sigh. She’d burned too many bridges to go back now. She hadn’t spoken to Clint since she and Steve broke everybody out of the Raft. She knew about his house arrest deal, but that was it. The one glimmer of hope she’d had at one day, possibly getting a chance at normal hadn’t been heard from in almost two years. There wasn’t anything left for her outside of what they had now. 

 

In the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep, when the silence and her own restless thoughts became too much she let her mind wander over the possibilities. It was almost comically juvenile. A little white house at the end of a long driveway, surrounded by trees in the country somewhere, where the world around them fell away. 

 

A dream. One that had no chance coming true. 

 

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Sam said, reaching across the table to cover her hand with his. 

 

The heavy warmth worked to ground her somewhat, enough to shake away the lingering feeling of dread. She had to focus on the present, getting by day to day, and push the rest away. That’s how she had to get through this. 

 

She smiled softly and moved her hand to pat his. 

 

“Thanks, Sam.” 

 

He wink and slid off the stool. “Any time Widow.” 


End file.
